"When we look at the comments there it's 'Wow, Cincinnati is a clean city, there's a lot of things to do, there's a lot of people out on the street,' and what we found was that the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon has a huge impact on these sort of noneconomic measures," said Douglas Oberling, chairman of sports studies at Xavier University.

He said city pride and social impact were improved by the race, and it reaches beyond runners to the volunteers who work at the marathon.

"The types of things we hear when we interview respondents are things like, 'It made me proud to be from Cincinnati, it made me feel like I was part of something larger,'" Oberling said. "These are typically charitable organizations, and they use volunteer experiences as team building. It connects them with the city, with the event, the participants and with one another."

Even the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings seem to have an effect on city identity, according to sports psychologist Barbara Walker.

"I've seen more people want to run, want to do it and show that this is an odd event, this is not the sort of thing that happens and we're going to take our community back, so you borrow the equity of the city and the region and it becomes part of the event," Walker said.

The race also offers a chance to attract visitors who in previous years have been left with a good impression of the city.